Tuesday, August 8, 2017

HAPPY WORLD CAT DAY IS YOUR HOME A CAT TEMPLE TOO?

AUGUST 8th is
World Cat Day ... so it's the purrr-fect day to look over the shoulders
of archaeologists who have unearthed what appears to have been a major
temple to the cat goddess Bastet in the royal quarter of ancient
Alexandria.

The discovery represents the first trace of the true
location of Alexandria's royal quarter, where the Ptolemies resided and
which served as the home base for Roman visitors, such as Julius Caesar
and Marcus Antonius, and later Emperor Hadrian and his lover Antinous in
130 AD.

The temple was in use for centuries. Presumably it was
still in use when Hadrian and Antinous arrived in Alexandria. In later
centuries Christians and Moslems used it as a "quarry" for stone to
build new structures.

Its ruins remained buried until an
archaeological team, doing routine excavations near the Roman theatre in
Alexandria, stumbled onto the temple foundations and a cache of 600
Ptolemaic statues, primarily of cats and the goddess Bastet.

The
temple was built by Queen Berenike, wife of Ptolemy III (246-222 BC).
The temple compound is believed to measure 60 metres by 15 metres and
extends underneath the present Ismail Fahmi Street in the heart of
Alexandria.

The team, which comprises 18 skilled excavators and
restorers, unearthed a large collection of statues depicting the cat
goddess Bastet, the goddess of protection and motherhood, which confirms
that the temple was dedicated to this popular Delta goddess.

The
Bastet statues were unearthed in three different areas of the site
together with other limestone statues of unidentified women and
children, according to Al Ahram newspaper. Clay pots as well as bronze
and faience statues of various ancient Egyptian deities have also been
uncovered, along with terracotta statues of the gods Harpocrates and
Ptah.

The temple foundations definitely can be dated to the reign
of Queen Berenike, making this the first Ptolemaic temple discovered in
Alexandria to be dedicated to the goddess Bastet. It also indicates
that the worship of the goddess Bastet continued in Egypt after the
decline of the ancient Egyptian dynasties.

An inscribed base of a
granite statue from the reign of Ptolemy IV was also unearthed. It
bears an Ancient Greek inscription written in nine lines stating that
the statue was commissioned by an official of high standing at the
Ptolemaic court. Abdel-Maqsoud believes the inscription celebrates
Egypt's victory over the Greeks during the Battle of Raphia in 217 BC.

Archaeologists
also found a cluster of other ancient structures, including a Roman
water cistern, a group of 14-metre-deep water wells, stone water
channels, and the remains of a bath area, as well as a large number of
clay pots and shards that can be dated as far back as the founding days
of Alexandria in the 4th Century BC.

"This find is the first trace of the real location of Alexandria's royal quarter," the newspaper reported.